Julian Waters is the son of calligrapher Sheila Waters and the late bookbinder/conservator Peter Waters (see Wikipedia). Starting in the late 1970s he studied extensively with the legendary German type designer Hermann Zapf, who later picked Julian as his successor to teach the summer masterclasses at Rochester Institute of Technology. Julian’s clients have included the U.S. Postal Service, National Geographic, many agencies, institutions and companies. He has been a typographic designer and advisor for numerous exhibit designs and memorials. His typeface designs include the award-winning Waters Titling Pro from Adobe and several custom corporate typefaces including a Transitional style family for the new Visitors Center at Jefferson’s Monticello where he was a typographic designer/advisor. Among his collaborative efforts was with muralist William Cochran on the large public text art project "The Dreaming" in Frederick MD, 2007. He has received many awards from the Type Directors Club, Graphis, Art Directors Club, Print, and Letter Arts Review, among others. Julian’s work has been represented in many international exhibitions and publications.

Julian has had solo exhibitions in Washington DC, Norway, Iceland, and in 2009 he was one of only two contemporary western lettering artists to be included in the St John’s Bible exhibition at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. During the 1990s Waters taught lettering and typography in the graphic design program at the Corcoran School of Art, and in 1997 he was the Rubenstein Memorial Artist in Residence at DC’s Sidwell Friends School, in conjunction with a large retrospective exhibition and lectures. In 2001, Julian was one of 14 international type designers invited to exhibit in the seminal "Zapfest" exhibition at the San Francisco Public Library. Waters has been keynote speaker at international design conferences and over the last 30 years he has taught countless specialized workshops for lettering professionals throughout the US, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia and Asia. He has taught several week-long summer sessions at Wells College Book Arts Institute, including digital font design using FontLab.

Along with being a preeminent lettering designer and teacher, Julian is an avid weekend table tennis player. He won more sanctioned tournament matches in the USA than any other player in the USA for a 10 year period. Julian also enjoys classical piano and sharing music with his daughter, a college music major. Julian lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland USA with his wife Cathy, an artist and cake decorator. His web site is www.waterslettering.com.